Mystery shrouds IISCO worker’s death

Mystery shrouds the death of a senior assistant of IISCO, whose body with injury marks was found in a room in the first floor of his rented house at Hirapur in Asansol on Wednesday morning.

Police said the victim, Arabindo Venkatesh Rao (50), was a senior assistant of the Project Department of IISCO. He and his 80-year-old mother used to stay in the rented house at Mahishila Colony.

Police came to know after speaking to the victim’s mother that four persons had come to meet Rao in his house on Tuesday night. The victim was in his first floor room when the people came. So his mother asked them to go to upstairs. They had claimed themselves to be the victim’s friends. They left the house after around an hour. The victim’s mother, who is suffering from various ailments due to her old age, saw them leaving. She didn’t call her son considering that he had gone to bed.

Suspicion arose when he didn’t come down from his room in the first floor till late Wednesday morning. His mother asked the domestic help to call Rao. She went up and found Rao lying unconscious on the floor of the room and cried for help. Local people gathered hearing her cry and informed the police. Policemen from Hirapur police station rushed to the spot and took Rao to hospital where he was declared brought dead. Subsequently the body was sent for an autopsy. A police officer said that there were injuries on his head and cut marks on his cheeks. “It seems that he had been beaten up and died when someone hit on his head with something heavy,” the officer said adding that they spoke to the colleagues of the victim to know whether he had rivalry with anyone or if he had got engaged into dispute with anyone.